US & Canada https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/ RAPPLER | Philippine & World News | Investigative Journalism | Data | Civic Engagement | Public Interest Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:13:59 +0800 en-US hourly 1 https://www.altis-dxp.com/?v=6.3.2 https://www.rappler.com/tachyon/2022/11/cropped-Piano-Small.png?fit=32%2C32 US & Canada https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/ 32 32 US House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/us-house-passes-bill-force-bytedance-divest-tiktok-face-ban/ https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/us-house-passes-bill-force-bytedance-divest-tiktok-face-ban/#respond Thu, 14 Mar 2024 08:59:58 +0800 WASHINGTON, DC, USA – The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Wednesday, March 13, that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app, or face a ban, in the greatest threat to the app since the Trump administration.

The bill passed 352-65 in a lopsided bipartisan vote, but it faces a more uncertain path in the Senate where some favor a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps posing security concerns. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will review the legislation.

“This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it,” No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said on social media platform X.

The fate of TikTok, used by about 170 million Americans, has become a major issue in Washington. Lawmakers said their offices had received large volumes of calls from teenage TikTok users who oppose the legislation.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday “we want to see the Senate take swift action.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted Wednesday the legislation if signed into law “will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States… and would take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses. It will put 300,000 American jobs at risk.”

He added the company will “not stop fighting” and will exercise its legal rights to prevent a ban.

He visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday on a previously scheduled trip and plans to return Thursday, a source briefed on the matter said, amid popular support for the app.

The measure is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to respond to US national security concerns about China, from connected vehicles to advanced artificial intelligence chips to cranes at US ports.

The political climate is growing in favor of the bill. President Joe Biden said last week he would sign it and White Hous national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday asked “Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized the legislation Tuesday, arguing “though the U.S. has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the US’s national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok.”

A number of prominent Democrats in the House voted against the bill including House Democratic Whip Kathleen Clark, Arizona Senate candidate Ruben Gallego, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as the top Democrats on the Judiciary, Ways and Means, Transportation and Intelligence committees.

“There are serious antitrust and privacy questions here, and any national security concerns should be laid out to the public prior to a vote,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, who will play an important role in the Senate’s next move, said she wants legislation “that could hold up in court,” and is considering a separate bill, but is not sure what her next step is.

The vote comes just over a week since the bill was proposed following one public hearing with little debate, and after action in Congress had stalled for more than a year. Last month, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joined TikTok, raising hopes among TikTok officials that legislation was unlikely this year.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week voted 50-0 in favor of the bill, setting it up for a vote before the full House.

Several dozen TikTok users rallied outside the Capitol before the vote. The company paid for their travel to Washington and accommodations, a TikTok spokesperson said.

But the political climate is growing in favor of the bill. Biden said last week he would sign it and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday said the goal was ending Chinese ownership, not banning TikTok.

“Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?” he said.

It is unclear whether China would approve any sale or if TikTok’s U.S. assets could be divested in six months.

If ByteDance failed to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google, and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump sought to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat but was blocked by the courts. In recent days he had raised concerns about a ban but nearly all House Republicans shrugged those off.

Representative Mike Gallagher, one of the bill’s authors, said they don’t want a ban but divestiture and said Trump if re-elected in November “may have an opportunity to consummate the deal of the century” in a TikTok sale.

It remains unclear if Tencent’s WeChat or other high-profile Chinese-owned apps could face a ban under the legislation.

Any forced TikTok divestment from the US would almost certainly face legal challenges, which the company would need to file within 165 days of the bill being signed by the president.

There are still potential legal issues with the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups arguing the bill is unconstitutional on free speech and other grounds.

In November, a US judge blocked a Montana state ban on TikTok use after the company sued. – Rappler.com

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EXPLAINER: When the double brood of cicadas will come out – and what to expect https://www.rappler.com/environment/nature/explainer-when-double-brood-cicadas-come-out-what-expect/ https://www.rappler.com/environment/nature/explainer-when-double-brood-cicadas-come-out-what-expect/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 18:56:43 +0800 WASHINGTON, USA – Parts of the United States are about to experience a rare natural phenomenon with the simultaneous emergence of two enormous adjacent broods of periodical cicadas. More than a trillion of these noisy bugs are set to pop out of the ground starting around late April.

The two broods – one concentrated in US Midwestern states and the other in the South and Midwest, with a small area of overlap in Illinois – emerge together only once every 221 years.

Here is an explanation of what is expected to occur during this “dual emergence.”

What is a cicada?

Cicadas are relatively large insects – 1-2 inches (2.5-5 cm) long – possessing sturdy bodies, bulging compound eyes and membranous wings. There are many different kinds of cicadas.

Using needle-like mouthparts, cicadas feed on plant juices, called xylem, drawn from the roots of deciduous trees and shrubs. They spend much of their life cycle – years on end – underground as nymphs feeding on roots and drinking xylem.

After they emerge, adult males “sing” to attract females using special organs called tymbals on the first segment of the abdomen. The song pitch, tone, frequency and volume are specific to individual species. Cicadas live as adults for just a few weeks, then die after reproducing. Numerous birds and mammals eat cicadas.

How do periodical and annual cicadas differ?

With annual cicadas, some individuals emerge during any given year. They spend one to nine years underground as nymphs, varying by species, and do not have a synchronized emergence. Instead, they emerge on a staggered basis.

Periodical cicadas have more specific and longer lengths of time spent underground as nymphs – generally 13 years or 17 years – and a synchronized emergence. That means that all members of a particular brood emerge the same year, from late April into June, depending on their location. All of the periodical cicadas sharing the same life cycle that emerge together in a given year are called a brood, although any one species may be part of different broods.

There are more than 3,000 species of cicadas worldwide, but only nine are periodical, and seven of those – of the genus Magicicada – are found in North America. In India, a periodical species of the genus Chremistica emerges every four years, while in Fiji, a periodical species of the genus Raiataena emerges every eight years.

What 2 broods are involved in this year’s dual emergence?

Brood XIII, on a 17-year cycle, is restricted mostly to northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, southern Wisconsin and a few counties in extreme northwestern Indiana, according to entomologist Floyd Shockley of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Brood XIII includes three Magicicada species.

Brood XIX, on a 13-year cycle, is widely distributed from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia – a total of 15 states, according to Shockley. Brood XIX includes four Magicicada species.

These two broods together span parts of 17 states but overlap only in a small area in central Illinois. They are close enough potentially to have some interbreeding between broods.

When will this dual emergence occur?

Periodical cicadas are expected to begin emerging in the southern parts of their geographical distribution in mid-April. The emergence continues northward into June. Given that most broods produce localized population numbers exceeding 1.5 million cicadas per acre (0.4 hectare) in densely populated areas of their distribution, there easily will be more than a trillion cicadas during this emergence, according to Shockley.

Flower, Plant, Animal
FILE PHOTO: A newly emerged adult cicada dries its wings on a flower, as Brood X or Brood 10 cicadas have begun emerging from the earth after 17 years, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., May 20, 2021.
When was the last such ‘dual emergence’?

This will mark the first time that a 13-year brood emerges in the same year as a 17-year brood since 2015. The last time that adjacent 13-and 17-year broods emerged in the same year was 1998, according to University of Connecticut evolutionary biologist John Cooley. Brood XIX, one of the two popping out this year, emerged in 1998 at the same time as Brood IV, which spans Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas.

The next time two 13-and 17-year broods will emerge the same year will not be until 2037 and the next time adjacent 13-and 17-year broods emerge together will not be until 2076, Cooley said.

What do cicadas do when they emerge?

The cicadas begin emerging, mainly at night, once the soil warms to about 64 degrees Fahrenheit (17.8 degrees C), according to George Washington University entomologist John Lill. These nymphs crawl up any hard surfaces – tree trunks, fences, vegetation – and molt into adult winged cicadas.

After a few days, adults fly into the tree canopy, where males form loud “choruses,” calling to females by vibrating their tymbals. Males have rather hollow abdomens, serving as echo chambers to amplify their calls. Cicadas are among the loudest insects. Females that are attracted to a particular male’s call respond with wing flicks, which also make a sound. Pairs then mate.

Once mated, female cicadas seek pencil-sized branches of trees and shrubs in sunny locations to lay their eggs into slits they cut in branches, according to Lill. These eggs develop for about six to seven weeks, after which hatched nymphs drop to the ground and burrow to begin the next generation of periodical cicadas.

When will this bug-tastic event occur next?

These two broods last emerged in the same year in 1803. The next time is set for 2245. – Rappler.com

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US House to vote on TikTok crackdown; fate uncertain in Senate https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/us-house-to-vote-tiktok-crackdown-fate-uncertain-in-senate/ https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/us-house-to-vote-tiktok-crackdown-fate-uncertain-in-senate/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:56:36 +0800 WASHINGTON, DC, USA – The US House of Representatives plans to vote on a bill on Wednesday, March 13, that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the short-video app used by about 170 million Americans or face a ban.

The vote is expected around 10 am under fast-track rules that require support by two-thirds of House members for the measure to pass.

The vote comes just over a week since the bill was proposed and after one public hearing with little debate. The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week voted 50-0 in favor of the bill, setting it up for a vote before the full House.

The FBI, Justice Department, and Office of the director of national intelligence held a classified briefing for House members on Tuesday.

“We’ve answered a lot of questions from members. We had a classified briefing today. So that members can see even more details about what’s at risk and how the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) can jeopardize the risk to American families,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

Tiktok CEO Shou Zi Chew will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday on a previously scheduled trip to talk to senators, a source briefed on the matter said.

“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” the company said. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” it added.

Some opponents of the legislation, including Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost, think the bill will pass in the House. Frost said many lawmakers who will vote for the bill are motivated by a desire to protect users, which he supports. Frost was among four lawmakers out of the 432-member House that held a press conference opposing the bill.

“The problem is the process here, the fact that it’s been steamrolled and people really can’t digest the consequences,” Frost said. “I would like to see TikTok ownership changed, but not at the expense of our First Amendment rights, business owners, and content creators.”

The fate of the legislation is uncertain in the US Senate, where some senators want to take a different approach.

President Joe Biden said last week that he would sign the bill.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that the goal is ending Chinese ownership – not banning TikTok. “Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok — children’s data, adults’ data — to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?”

It is unclear if China would approve any sale or if TikTok could be divested in six months

The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok. If it failed to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump sought to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat but was blocked by the courts. In recent days he had raised concerns about a ban. – Rappler.com

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Biden, Trump clinch nominations, kicking off bruising presidential rematch https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/joe-biden-clinches-nomination-presidential-rematch-with-trump-looms/ https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/joe-biden-clinches-nomination-presidential-rematch-with-trump-looms/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:25:42 +0800 President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both clinched their parties’ nomination on Tuesday, March 12, kicking off the first US presidential election rematch in nearly 70 years.

Biden needed 1,968 delegates to win the nomination, and he passed that number on Tuesday night as results began to come in from the primary contest in Georgia, Edison Research said. Results were also coming in from Mississippi, Washington state, the Northern Mariana Islands and Democrats living abroad.

Hours later, Trump clinched the 1,215 delegates required to secure the Republican presidential nomination as four states held contests, including Georgia, the battleground where Trump faces criminal charges for his efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 results. There were 161 delegates at stake on Tuesday in Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington state.

Biden, 81, issued a statement after he sealed the Democratic nomination, taking aim at what he called Trump’s “campaign of resentment, revenge, and retribution that threatens the very idea of America.”

“Voters now have a choice to make about the future of this country. Are we going to stand up and defend our democracy or let others tear it down? Will we restore the right to choose and protect our freedoms or let extremists take them away?” he said.

The outcome of Tuesday’s voting was essentially predetermined, after Trump’s last remaining rival for the Republican nomination, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, ended her presidential campaign following Trump’s dominant performance last week on Super Tuesday, when he won 14 of 15 state contests.

In a video posted on social media, Trump said there was no time to celebrate, and instead put the focus on beating Biden, whom he called the “worst” president in US history.

“We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to close our borders. We’re going to do things like nobody has ever seen before. And we’re going to make our nation’s economy be the best ever in the world,” said Trump.

Biden, meanwhile, faced only token opposition in the Democratic primary campaign, though liberal activists frustrated by his support for Israel’s war in Gaza have convinced a sizable minority of Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in protest.

Both men have already turned their attention to the Nov. 5 general election, holding dueling rallies in Georgia on Saturday.

In Rome, Georgia, Trump, 77, again repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent and accused the Fulton County attorney, Fani Willis, of prosecuting him for political reasons. He also attacked Biden for failing to stem the flow of migrants at the U.S. southern border, an issue he intends to keep front and center throughout the campaign, as he did in 2020.

The Biden campaign launched a more aggressive phase on Friday, announcing Biden would tour several battleground states amid a $30 million ad buy. The campaign said it raised $10 million in the 24 hours after Biden’s State of the Union speech, adding to Democrats’ financial edge over Republicans.

Voters unenthusiastic

The last repeat presidential matchup took place in 1956, when Republican President Dwight Eisenhower defeated former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat, for the second time.

This year, voters have expressed little enthusiasm for a repeat of the bitter 2020 election, with Reuters/Ipsos public polls showing both Biden and Trump are unpopular with the majority of voters.

Trump’s myriad criminal charges – he faces 91 felony counts across four separate indictments – could harm his standing among the suburban, well-educated voters whose support he has historically struggled to garner.

He is scheduled to become the first former American president to go on trial in a criminal case on March 25 in New York, where he faces charges he falsified business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star.

The most serious case against him is generally thought to be the federal indictment in Washington, D.C., accusing him of plotting to reverse the 2020 election. But the case is on hold after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Trump’s claim of presidential immunity, and it is unclear whether a trial can take place before Election Day.

Biden has been dogged by the perception among a majority of voters that he is too old to serve a second four-year term, though allies believe his fiery State of the Union address may serve to counter that notion.

The ongoing crisis at the US-Mexico border, where an influx of migrants has overwhelmed the system, is another weakness for Biden. He has sought to transfer the blame to Trump after the former president urged congressional Republicans to kill a bipartisan border security bill that would have stepped up enforcement.

The economy, as always, will be a central campaign issue.

Biden has presided over an expanding economy, with inflationary pressure easing and stocks hitting all-time highs. But polls show Americans unwilling to credit the president and frustrated about high prices of items like food in the wake of the pandemic. – Rappler.com

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US preparing new weapons package for Ukraine – officials https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-new-weapons-package-ukraine-march-2024/ https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-new-weapons-package-ukraine-march-2024/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 23:25:14 +0800 WASHINGTON, USA – The United States is preparing a new military aid package for Ukraine that could be worth as much as $400 million, two US officials told Reuters on Tuesday, March 12, the first such move in months as additional funds for Kyiv remain blocked by Republican leaders in Congress.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an announcement was expected later on Tuesday.

One of the officials said that the funding for this package is from credits refunded to the Pentagon for recent purchases.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has backed military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, while his likely Republican opponent in the November 5 US election, former president Donald Trump, has a more isolationist stance.

The House is under pressure to pass a $95 billion national security package that bolsters aid for Ukraine, Israel as well as the Indo-Pacific.

That legislation cleared the Senate on a 70-29 vote, but Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has resisted putting up the aid bill for a vote in the House. – Rappler.com

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https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-new-weapons-package-ukraine-march-2024/feed/ 0 [WATCH] Why Filipinos should *really* care about Ukraine’s fight vs Russia https://www.rappler.com/tachyon/2023/11/ukraine-servicemen-zaporizhzhia-november-4-2023-reuters.jpg
FAA audit of Boeing’s 737 MAX production found dozens of issues, NYT reports https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/faa-audit-boeing-737-max-production-dozens-issues/ https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/faa-audit-boeing-737-max-production-dozens-issues/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:38:54 +0800 The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) audit of Boeing’s 737 MAX production process after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines jet in January failed 33 of 89 tests, The New York Times reported on Monday, March 11.

Supplier Spirit AeroSystems, which makes the fuselage for the MAX, passed six of thirteen audits and failed the rest, according to the presentation viewed by NYT.

The FAA, Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems did not immediately reply to a Reuters’ request for comment.

Earlier in the day, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he expects the plane maker to cooperate in investigations by the Justice Department and National Transportation Safety Board into the 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency on January 5.

Meanwhile, the FAA’s Michael Whitaker said the agency and Boeing hope to define the milestones the manufacturer must meet in order to increase the MAX production rate in the next 30 days.

Last week, the agency said it found “non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control.” – Rappler.com

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Trump calls TikTok a threat but says some kids could ‘go crazy’ without it https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/trump-calls-tiktok-threat-says-kids-go-crazy-without/ https://www.rappler.com/technology/social-media/trump-calls-tiktok-threat-says-kids-go-crazy-without/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:07:05 +0800 WASHINGTON, DC, USA – US presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Monday, March 11, TikTok was a national security threat but also said a ban on the popular app would hurt some kids and only strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook, which the Republican has harshly criticized.

Trump reiterated his concerns as lawmakers weigh a bill this week that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the short video app used by 170 million Americans.

The US House of Representatives is set to vote on Wednesday under fast-track rules that require two-thirds of members to vote “yes” for the measure to win passage.

TikTok told Congress late Monday in a letter seen by Reuters it is “not owned or controlled by the Chinese government” and argued if the company was sold another buyer would not continue TikTok’s $1.5 billion effort to protect US data.

“Ironically, US user data could be less secure under a divestment scheme,” the company said.

The FBI, Justice Department, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence plan to hold on Tuesday a classified briefing for House members, two sources said. FBI Director Chris Wray reiterated concerns about TikTok at a hearing on Monday.

The 2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community released on Monday said “TikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the US midterm election cycle in 2022.”

The Justice Department detailed its security concerns about TikTok in a document last week first reported by Reuters.

“I’m not looking to make Facebook double the size,” Trump told CNBC on Monday. “And if you if you ban TikTok, (then) Facebook and others, but mostly Facebook, will be a big beneficiary. And I think Facebook has been very dishonest.”

Trump met recently with investor Jeff Yass, whose investment firm Susquehanna International Group has a stake in ByteDance, he confirmed on CNBC. Trump said they did not talk about TikTok.

Meta Platforms shares closed down 4.4% at $483.59 on Monday. The company declined to comment.

‘Kids will go crazy’

Trump previously criticized the company now called Meta Platforms for revoking his access to Facebook and Instagram after removing two of his posts during the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. His accounts were reinstated in February 2023.

Trump also said a TikTok ban could impact young people. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” he said. “There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok.”

Tiktok CEO Shou Zi Chew will visit Capitol Hill later this week on a previously scheduled trip to talk to senators, a source briefed on the matter said.

President Joe Biden said last week he would sign the bill after a committee unanimously approved the measure.

TikTok, which says it has not and would not share US user data with the Chinese government, argues the House bill amounts to a ban. It is unclear if China would approve any sale or if TikTok could be divested in six months.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said “we must ensure the Chinese government cannot weaponize TikTok against American users and our government through data collection and propaganda.”

The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok. If it failed to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide Web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

In 2020, Trump sought to ban TikTok and Chinese-owned WeChat but was blocked by the courts.

The app is popular and getting legislation approved by both the House and Senate in an election year may be difficult. Last month, Biden’s re-election campaign joined TikTok.

Trump’s campaign has not joined TikTok. – Rappler.com

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Trump, Biden trade salvos in Georgia face-off https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/trump-biden-trade-salvos-georgia-face-off/ https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/trump-biden-trade-salvos-georgia-face-off/#respond Sun, 10 Mar 2024 11:41:19 +0800 ROME, Georgia – A defiant and bitter Donald Trump returned on Saturday, March 9, to the state where he faces criminal charges for undermining the 2020 US presidential election, looking to win the battleground of Georgia as a stepping-stone to taking back the presidency.

Trump was stumping in Georgia on the same day as President Joe Biden, who campaigned in nearby Atlanta, signifying the critical role the state will play in November’s general election.

In his remarks, Trump repeatedly insisted falsely he was the victim of widespread election fraud and he blasted the Georgia district attorney, Fani Willis, who is prosecuting him for interfering with the 2020 election, accusing her of working with the Biden administration to target him.

“They’re trying to take us out, and it’s not going to work,” Trump told the crowd at an arena in Rome, Georgia.

Biden, meanwhile, took aim at Trump for entertaining Hungary’s right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban at his Florida club in recent days, accusing him of “sucking up to dictators and authoritarian thugs all around the world.”

“When he says he wants to be a dictator, I believe him,” Biden said.

There may not be a more hotly contested state than Georgia in the November 5 general election, which swung to Biden in the 2020 election and was central to Trump’s fraud claims.

Trump is expected to clinch his party’s nomination on Tuesday when Georgia, along with Hawaii, Mississippi and Washington state hold nominating contests.

On Thursday, Biden delivered a State of the Union speech laden with criticisms of Trump, accusing him of threatening democracy, kowtowing to Russia and sinking bipartisan immigration reform.

The president, however, continues to grapple with a backlash among Democrats for his staunch support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, discontent that could manifest itself in the vote in Georgia on Tuesday.

At his campaign event on Saturday, a heckler was escorted out after calling the president “Genocide Joe.”

A coalition of multifaith and multiracial groups in Georgia have launched a campaign urging voters to leave their ballots blank instead of voting for Biden on Tuesday in the hope of sending a message to the White House to reconsider its support of Israel.

A key state

Trump’s event was held within the congressional district of right-wing firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, who raised eyebrows when she attended Thursday’s State of the Union address clad in Trump attire was given a hero’s welcome by Saturday’s rowdy crowd.

“Georgia is a key state, it’s a key state in this election,” she said. “We’re going to work as hard as possible to deliver it for Donald Trump.”

As he has done in recent speeches, Trump devoted much of his remarks to the situation at the southern US border. He blamed Biden for the death of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed last month in Athens, Georgia.

A Venezuelan man who authorities say entered the US illegally has been charged in her death. Members of Riley’s family attended Trump’s rally and some in the crowd held aloft her picture.

Biden mentioned Riley’s murder during his State of the Union remarks. He apologized on Saturday for referring to the suspect as an “illegal.”

Chris LaCivita, Trump’s co-campaign manager, said Trump would continue to focus on immigration and the economy in the weeks ahead.

“I’m very confident about where we are today, where we’re going to be in November.” LaCivita said. “Because the issues right now aren’t changing.”

No fraud

Biden edged out Trump in Georgia by just 0.23% in 2020. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the state’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, were adamant that no widespread fraud occurred and that the vote count was legitimate despite Trump’s insistence otherwise.

Prosecutors in Georgia allege Trump and his allies engaged in a conspiracy by making false statements about the election and developing a plan to disrupt and delay the congressional certification of the electoral votes. Trump denies the charges.

Trump and his co-defendants are attempting to disqualify Willis from the case, alleging she was involved in an “improper relationship” with a special prosecutor she named to the case and that she financially benefited from the relationship. Willis has denied the allegations.

Last month, a Fulton County judge heard arguments on Trump’s request and is expected to issue a ruling within days.

“This whole witchhunt should be put out of its misery and dismissed immediately,” Trump said.

Prosecutors have pushed for starting the Trump trial in Georgia as early as August when Trump would be in the heat of the campaign. But it remains unclear whether it will go forward before the election. – Rappler.com

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US judge rejects Republican challenge to Biden migrant sponsorship program https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-judge-rejects-republican-challenge-biden-migrant-sponsorship-program/ https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-judge-rejects-republican-challenge-biden-migrant-sponsorship-program/#respond Sat, 09 Mar 2024 09:44:56 +0800 A US judge in Texas on Friday, March 8, rejected a challenge by Republican-led states to a Biden administration program that allows hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to apply for emergency entry into the United States.

US District Court Judge Drew Tipton in Victoria, Texas, said the 21 states, led by Texas, lacked standing to pursue the 2023 lawsuit because they could not show that the program, which allows up to 30,000 people per month to enter the US, caused them any injury.

Some 234,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans had entered the US through the program as of November 2023, according to US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statistics. To qualify, migrants must have a US sponsor and enter the country by air.

Tipton in his ruling noted that the number of people illegally entering the US from the four countries since the program was implemented had dramatically decreased by as much as 44%. The judge did not address the merits of the lawsuit, which claims that DHS lacked the authority to adopt the program.

The US Department of Justice and the office of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton both did not respond to requests for comment.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking another term in the November 5 presidential election, has sought to expand legal pathways to the US to discourage would-be migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border illegally.

Republicans, including the party’s candidate to face off against Biden, former president Donald Trump, have said the “parole” programs go beyond the scope of what is allowable by law.

Record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing the US-Mexico border illegally during Biden’s presidency. Republicans say Biden should have kept Trump’s more restrictive policies while Biden has argued that Republicans have refused to provide adequate border funding and pass legislation that would toughen enforcement.

The states argued in their lawsuit that the US government’s authority to use parole is “exceptionally limited” and can only be applied on a case-by-case basis. They claimed they faced irreparable harm because arriving migrants increase the cost of public services, including policing and emergency medical care.

Tipton, a Trump appointee, said in his ruling that the program was having the opposite effect.

“The court has before it a case in which Plaintiffs claim that they have been injured by a program that has actually lowered their out-of-pocket costs,” he wrote.

In a separate case on Friday, Tipton ordered the Biden administration to halt its efforts to redirect $1.4 billon in Trump-era border wall construction funds to other projects.

Tipton sided with Texas and Missouri in the case, but paused the ruling for a week to allow for an appeal. – Rappler.com

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US Army intelligence analyst charged with selling military secrets to China https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-army-intelligence-analyst-charged-selling-military-secrets-china/ https://www.rappler.com/world/us-canada/united-states-army-intelligence-analyst-charged-selling-military-secrets-china/#respond Fri, 08 Mar 2024 13:25:22 +0800 WASHINGTON, DC, USA – A US Army intelligence analyst was arrested on Thursday, March 7, and charged with conspiring to sell sensitive defense information to China.

Federal prosecutors charged Korbein Schultz with conspiracy to disclose national defense information, exporting defense articles and technical data without a license, and bribery of a public official, the US Justice Department said in a press release.

Schultz, who was arrested at Kentucky’s Fort Campbell, was paid approximately $42,000 to provide an individual he believed lived in Hong Kong with information about US plans in the event Taiwan came under military attack, according to the release.

Schultz put “personal profit above the security of the American people,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in the statement. “Today’s arrest shows that such a betrayal does not pay — the Department of Justice is committed to identifying and holding accountable those who would break their oath to protect our nation’s secrets.” – Rappler.com

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